We have a coverage case in the office that’s 15 years old, with no end in sight. The amazing thing is, it’s not even a particularly complicated case. I don’t want to go into too much detail or give the names of the parties, because the matter is still pending. But even if we eventually
Gene Killian
Frozen pizza, the sistership exclusion, and an insurance company’s duty to defend
By Gene Killian on
My maternal grandfather, Pasquale Cupito, was a legend. I have far too many stories to list here, but one of them involves a giant garbage can lid that he used as a cooking utensil. See, he could make a mean homemade pizza, but there was never enough to keep everyone satisfied. One day he concluded…
The professional negligence of insurance brokers
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Brokers and agents, Errors and Omissions
I promise not to discuss COVID-19 in detail in this post. The recent deluge of hot legal takes about the pandemic may be making a lot of people sicker than the virus itself. So, let’s talk about a different, earlier disaster.
Believe it or not, eight years after the winds of Hurricane Sandy struck New…
Business Interruption Insurance and COVID-19
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Business Interruption, Coronavirus
In the 2008 film Wall-E, Earth is a post-apocalyptic wasteland with nothing on it but the abandoned remnants of human society, and a forlorn, trash-compacting robot. The robot’s only living company is a pet cockroach named Hal, which I guess is Pixar’s nod to the popular notion that cockroaches will outlive us all. (Or…
Detecting fraudulent certificates of insurance
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Crime or theft, Fraud
Here’s a piece of useless trivia for you. You know that old saying that something “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”? The saying apparently originated back in 1861, when Count Johann Bernhard von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen (remember him?), an Austrian statesman, was presented with a document recognizing Italy as a nation-state, and first uttered…
New cyber-liability insurance coverage decisions from the federal courts
By Gene Killian on
Not long ago, there was a kerfuffle over the use of the term “OK, Boomer,” which I guess is a pejorative term aimed at my generation for being out-of-touch with the modern world. (See the Vox article here.) Truth be told, maybe we are out of touch, at least about some things. As someone…
The problem of illusory coverage
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Contract construction, Errors and Omissions
In the “Cheese Shop” sketch from the old Monty Python comedy series, John Cleese plays a customer trying to buy some cheese from “Ye National Cheese Emporium, purveyor of fine cheese to the gentry (and the poverty-stricken too)”. The cheese shop proprietor, played by Michael Palin, seems to have no cheese in stock, not even…
A tragic story, and the meaning of “intent” in insurance law
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Expected or Intended, Life insurance
If you’re involved in the legal business for any length of time, every once in a while, you’ll come across a case in which the facts are so horrible, and the result so seemingly wrongheaded, that you can’t help but feel that our entire system has failed. A recent decision from the Third Circuit, Arena…
Enforcing insurance coverage for intellectual property claims
By Gene Killian on
Because most people think that insurance law is about as exciting as watching grass grow, I try to be somewhat entertaining in these posts. Probably I usually fail, but at least I keep myself amused.
If there’s one thing that we wannabe comedians hate, though, it’s being upstaged. I was recently reading a decision from…
Your life insurance may be illegal
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Insurable interest, Life insurance
In Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir masterpiece, “Double Indemnity,” Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect on his accident policy. (Who knew insurance could be so seedy?) The suspicious and relentless claims adjuster, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), eventually gets to the bottom of the…